Costa Rica Real Estate Boomed Before But What Can You Expect In The Future?

By Author: Victor Krumm
Total Articles: 17
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One of the smallest countries on the planet, Costa Rica is recognized for its sandy beaches, picture perfect coastal landscape, and its extraordinarily diverse fauna and flora. In fact, though it is only about the size of West Virginia, nearly twenty percent of the plant and animal species on earth are found in that Central American country.

Tourists flock to it in droves annually making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Latin America. Most visitors are from America and Canada, of course, but there are also thousands of European travelers. In order to cater to the booming tourism industry, tourist amenities have popped up on both coasts. This in turn has caused a sharp rise in Costa Rica real estate value over the last decade or so since land is one commodity that is not plentiful in a country with just one tenth of one percent of the world's land mass.

The north and central parts of the Pacific coast, in particular, with great weather and numerous amenities, has been the most popular area for tourists for a number of years. The need for developed property meeting the needs of the growing number ...
... of visitors has led to a large rise in prices of homes and land there. Hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, and places for adult and family oriented fun have sprung up dramatically. This has led to an acute shortage of land in some places that has brought increased upward pressure on real estate prices.

Increasingly, Americans, Canadians, and Europeans see it as the perfect place to spend their later years. With lots of sunny and sandy beaches, nearly 800 miles of coastline, lush mountains always close at hand, year round great weather, a stable and democratic political system, low crime rates, excellent medical and dental providers and facilities, and high human development indices, many people like to have a second home there, too.

Costa Rica was one of the world's first countries to understand the importance of sustainable development. That appeals to many tourists. The country has adapted to its tourist patronage by developing and welcoming the international community. Condo construction, single family homes, and subdivisions catering to expats accelerated dramatically in the last 10 years along the Gold Coast. Of course, as demand increased, so did land prices.

Certainly, Costa Rica has felt the impact of the severe economic downturn in America and Europe. Real estate sales of condominiums and single family homes for expats or as second homes have declined dramatically and in some areas along the Pacific coast cash-strapped Americans are selling their tropical homes at steep discounts.

Despite today's uncertain economic climate in the West, the general perception is that there will be a large rebound in Costa Rica real estate. Why? One reason is that, in comparison to the United States and the European continent, real estate prices, particularly on sunny, tropical coastlines, remain very reasonable, just a fraction of the cost elsewhere.
The writer lives in sunny Costa Rica and has a popular website about Costa Rica Vacations. For many sportsfolk, Costa Rica Fishing is the highlight of their Costa Rica trip